IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2023 - 41

Pipelining
Attractive Programs for Women
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Thriving Stars
Elevating support for diverse candidates
w
When Asu Ozdaglar, head of the De -
partment of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science (EECS) at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), and Leslie Kolodziejski, professor
and graduate officer at EECS,
launched the Thriving Stars initiative,
it was an ambitious, optimistic idea,
meant to increase gender representation
and inclusivity among the department's
graduate students. Although the
" Thriving " in the name refers to the
students themselves, the program itself
could be considered to be, well, thriving,
with impressive results after just a
short while.
An Amazing Start
In the second year of Thriving Stars programming,
EECS saw " a 22% increase
in Ph.D. applications by women (compared
to an 11% increase from men),
resulting in the largest number of ap -
plications ever received from women
in the history of the department, " re -
ports Kolodziejski.
" With all these outstanding applications
in hand, we admitted a significant
number of female doctoral students, "
she continues. " With a yield exceeding
70%, the number of women enrolled in
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2023.3311343
Date of current version: 30 October 2023
the Ph.D. program for fall 2023 is the
largest in the history of EECS at MIT. "
Couple these statistics with the fact
that Ozdaglar is the first woman ever to
lead MIT EECS, and there are unprecedented
gains in gender equity being made
at the home of one of the most prestigious
and renowned Ph.D. programs in
the world. The entire institution
is taking notice.
" Thriving Stars is
off to an amazing start
and is already having a
positive impact on EECS
graduate students at MIT,
thanks to the visionary
leadership and concentrated
efforts of Asu and Leslie, "
says Daniel Huttenlocher,
dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of
Computing. " These incredible changes
will reverberate not only within EECS,
but also resonate across MIT as a whole. "
Ozdaglar and Kolodziejski describe
the school is more than 40% female,
but the smaller population of women at
the graduate level mirrors statistics provided
by the National Science Foundation,
where " only 1 in 4 doctoral degrees
are awarded to women in engineering,
computer science, and math. " Ozdaglar
attributes some of the discrepancy to
the Ph.D. admissions process, which
includes matching faculty with applicants,
an individual-level system that
can result in a narrow group of admitted
students as opposed to the broader
level of criteria to be considered at the
undergraduate level.
To increase the number of women in
the program, Thriving Stars prioritizes
elevating support for diverse candidates
at all levels of the Ph.D. experience, from
the application and admissions process
to the opportunities for students
while enrolled, to the network
and community after
graduation. Ozdaglar and
Kolodziejski discussed
that the approach needed
to be holistic to make a
difference. " It starts with
attracting a rich pool of ap -
Asu Ozdaglar
plicants, then goes to admissions
to see if we are properly
evaluating a wide range of criThriving
Stars as a holistic approach
toward meeting an aggressive goal:
with women making up only 25% of
the graduate student body in 2021, the
team hopes to reach 40% representation
in three years. Given the progress
made in the first two years, the goal is
within sight.
According to the MIT EECS website,
the undergraduate population of
DECEMBER 2023
teria, and then we need to turn those
admissions decisions into enrollment, "
describes Ozdaglar. " But it doesn't stop
after that. Just because you have people
here isn't success. You have to make
sure they are supported and that they
will have a continued support system
and network after they graduate. "
Equal Representation
Ironically, it is partially because of how
well women were thriving at EECS that
Ozdaglar and Kolodziejski came up
with the idea to formalize Thriving
Stars. Back in 2020, they were writing a
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE
41
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2023

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